Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Lebanese civilian in the leg Sunday amid a protest near a religious site on the Lebanese-Israeli border, Lebanese police said.

Mohammad Hassan, 30, had been hurling stones with other young men towards an Israeli military post, which lies close to the Imam al-Abbad burial ground, a site quarreled over by Jews and Muslims, said the police.

The tomb sits on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The men were throwing stones at armored Israeli military vehicles, which patrol the hill around Fatima Gate, when a rock hit one of the three vehicles, witnesses said.

Immediately, the soldiers went into pursuit.

Hassan and the others fled carrying posters, which protested the Israeli imprisonment of 20 Lebanese without a hearing.

The men had been standing upon a spot that regularity undergoes fire by Israeli soldiers and has been transformed into a shrine for pilgrims since the Israeli retreat from south Lebanon on May 24 after 22 years of occupation.

Israeli military sources in Kiryat Shmona across the border in Israel said that Hassan had tried to cross the borderline when Israeli soldiers fired in self-defense.

At least 10 Lebanese civilians have been killed and another 40 injured by Israeli gunfire on the borderline since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon -- MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AFP)